A plurality of wearable and/or handheld lighting devices located within a space can each be controlled to collectively render a synchronized lighting effect that creates an immersive light experience as part of concerts and other events with large crowds. In one example involving a concert, a plurality of user-held lighting devices within an arena are each configured to emit a light corresponding to a respective part of a preconfigured light show. The light emitted by each of the plurality of devices is configured such that, at a distance from the user-held devices, an overall image/lighting effect is formed. This is shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 shows an arena comprising a plurality of lighting devices 100 in the form of handheld user lighting devices. The arena is divided into a plurality of light regions 101a-101d, with one or more of the lighting devices 100 falling within each of the regions. In other words, each region comprises at least one lighting device 100. The lighting devices 100 may be arranged to output a particular sequence of colored light in dependence on which region they are located in. For example, assume that the arena is divided into quadrants. The handheld lighting devices in the upper left quadrant 101a are initially configured to emit a blue light, before cycling through red, green and yellow lights. The handheld lighting devices in the upper right quadrant 101b are initially configured to emit a red light before cycling through green, yellow and blue lights. The handheld lighting devices in the lower left quadrant 101c are initially configured to emit a green light before cycling through yellow, blue and red lights. Finally, the handheld lighting devices in the lower right quadrant are initially configured to emit a yellow light before cycling through blue, red and green lights. In this manner, a particular large-scale lighting effect can be achieved. A camera directed towards these handheld lighting devices may then record the lighting effect before outputting the recorded lighting effect to a display that the users of the handheld lighting devices can view in real-time. The lighting effect may be synchronized to an audio track being played at the concert.
There are numerous ways of coordinating the lighting show provided by the handheld lighting devices. One way of doing this is for a centralized control unit to periodically send respective lighting control information for a particular time period to each of the plurality of lighting devices based on a determined location of the lighting devices.